Misereor, a funding agency from Germany, which helps about 300 NGOs in India, conducted a two and a half day workshop on “Conflict Sensitive Approach” at Atma Darshan Gyan Ashram Campus, Andheri (E) , Mumbai. The training was held from 12th to 14th July, 2016. Representatives of 11 selected NGOs from 9 states (Odisha, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Punjab) participated in the training. Bihar Dalit Vikas Samiti (BDVS), Bihar, was represented by Mr. Sinaya Sundar Nayak and Mr. Babu P. Thomas.

The theme of work shop was “Conflict Sensitive Approaches or Do No Harm Approach”. The reason for such a work shop was the past experience of NGOs. The NGOs in their daily work aim to help others to improve their living situation and enable them to unfold their full potential. Often they do this in very demanding environments, with scarce resources and under time pressure. The NGOs do their level best to bring maximum benefits. But their experience shows that even with the best intentions many development initiatives – unintentionally – feed into local conflict dynamics. Unfortunately they often cause harm to the very people they wanted to help.

Under this back drop, Misereor took the initiative to sensitize its partners and conducted the work shop. The ‘Do No Harm Approach’ is a simple methodology that helps the NGOs to deal with the dilemma of wanting to do good but actually causing harm. The Do No Harm approach Helps development workers to deal with complexities and understand them, helps them to strife for better outcomes while minimizing unintended negative impacts for the very people they work for.

Mr. Bjoern Eser, a man with twenty years of training experience in different Asian and African countries, was the Resource Person. He shared his vast and rich experience with the participants. He explained to the participants the four major components of the ‘Do No harm’ framework. He told them, if there is conflict, first identify the ‘Dividers’ and ‘connectors’. The tools to identify the dividers and connectors were also revealed to the participants. The topic was made easier and clearer with the help of case studies.